Episodes 6 & 7: Uncrossed Bridges, Parts 1 & 2
Part 1
Part 2
Will today’s young Mormon women be willing to seek a spiritual home within the same patriarchal church structure their mothers and grandmothers have inhabited? Susan and Cynthia discuss how the bridges they’ve built don’t seem to lead to a place younger women want to go.
Notes & Quotes:
Young Women in the Work, by Bonnie Oscarson, April 2018 General Conference
“There Is Always a Struggle”: An Interview with Chieko N. Okazaki, by Greg Prince, 11/15/2005
Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling, by Richard Bushman
Planted: Belief and Belonging in an Age of Doubt, by Patrick Mason
“Young women can be more than mere spectators of the work on Sundays.” “Young women want to be of service. They need to know they are valued and essential in the work of salvation.” —Bonnie Oscarson, Young Women in the Work
“Men and women are different. What needs to be made equal is the value placed on those differences.” —Virginia Woolf
“It seems to me that Christ loved the women. I think He really included them in many areas where Jewish society excluded them. He didn’t mind breaking those rules.” —Chieko Okazaki
“So where do we need to go to get women in the church where He wants them to be?” —Greg Prince, interview with Chieko Okazaki, Dialogue (11/15/2005)
“I think women have yet to find their true place in the church. Our theology demands they have a larger place because if gender is eternal that means there are basic differences that go to the very core of our very being. And if that is true, we have to hear from women. They have to speak their needs, wants, and wishes and so all of our councils should have more women at every level, every place. I think there are things that have to be done in our times.” —Richard Bushman, Rough Stone Rolling
“Men are privileged in the church. Full stop. The way things are currently set up. As long as you say the Priesthood is reserved for only one sex and that that Priesthood is what qualifies a person for all major leadership and administrative capacity in the church, then that sex is privileged. You just can’t get around that. And no matter how much we say about motherhood or how much more spiritual women are, the fact of the matter is that institutionally and structurally, men are privileged.” —Patrick Mason, Planted